Abstract

Poor and marginalized people have always distributed the labour of mothering, among their extended kin networks, with friends and neighbours and within their communities. This essay argues that taking a long historical view on the distribution of infant-feeding as labour serves as a useful corrective to modern western or imperial models which reify exclusive breastfeeding in the mother–baby dyad, and opens up questions about how the work of feeding babies has played a role in generating and sustaining rigid gender binaries. The article excavates traces of information about the feeding practices of people in West Africa who are members of gender-segregated solidarity societies, from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. These institutions regulate much of economic and social life in the region, which incorporates parts of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, reflecting the endurance of institutions of social reproduction through widespread political change. Practices of infant-feeding show similar endurance, shaped more by economic necessity than political pressure. The article focuses on the experiences of West African men and women, along with the babies they feed with milk of all kinds, rice, palm oil and water. This mothering labour is part of a wider knowledge of the body which has been passed down among Africans and the African diaspora, and with which historians of labour, the body and emotions could usefully engage.

中文翻译：

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母亲团结：自十七世纪以来西非的婴儿喂养，脆弱性和贫困*

摘要

贫穷和边缘化的人一直在与亲朋好友和社区内部的亲戚网络之间分配母亲的劳动。本文认为，从长远角度看待婴儿喂养作为劳动的分布，可以有效地纠正现代西方或帝国主义模式，这些模式在母婴二联体中实现了纯母乳喂养，并提出了有关喂养工作方式的问题。婴儿在生成和维持严格的性别二进制中发挥了作用。这篇文章挖掘了有关18世纪至21世纪西非性别隔离团结社会成员的饮食习惯的信息。这些机构管理着塞拉利昂部分地区的该地区大部分经济和社会生活，利比里亚和几内亚反映了通过广泛的政治变革对社会再生产制度的承受力。婴儿喂养的做法显示出相似的耐力，更多是出于经济上的需要而不是政治压力。本文重点介绍西非男女的经历，以及他们用各种牛奶，大米，棕榈油和水喂养的婴儿。这种母体劳动是对身体的更广泛了解的一部分，这一知识已在非洲人和非洲侨民中传承了下来，有关劳动，身体和情感的历史学家可以与之有效地互动。本文重点介绍西非男女的经历，以及他们用各种牛奶，大米，棕榈油和水喂养的婴儿。这种母体劳动是对身体的更广泛了解的一部分，这一知识已在非洲人和非洲侨民中传承了下来，有关劳动，身体和情感的历史学家可以与之有效地互动。本文重点介绍西非男女的经历，以及他们用各种牛奶，大米，棕榈油和水喂养的婴儿。这种母体劳动是对身体的更广泛了解的一部分，这一知识已在非洲人和非洲侨民中传承了下来，有关劳动，身体和情感的历史学家可以与之有效地互动。